This is one of those much-sought-after by parent and teachers alike treasures, a compilation of short stories on a theme! They would work wonderfully in a middle school ELA classroom, through 8th grade, for a short story unit.
Stories range from 13 to 22 but most clock in around 15 pages and are told from varying POVs of students at the same middle school who live nearby and are walking home from school.
Each story explores a different perspective -- from the Low Cuts bullies who shake down kids on the playground for pocket change but are actually using it to buy one of the members' moms ice cream to provide a bright spot in her latest round of chemo, to a skate-boarding girl headed out to talk to her deceased brother at his grave. There's the son of the school crossing guard who totes around an old broom to help with his anxiety, boys sticking up for other boys being gay-bashed, and the girl who encounters a woman on the street everyday whose only constant is that she's always changing.
The stories are lightly interconnected but can be read independently. They're poignant and perfect for use with POV standards.
Teaching Note:
The book's a bit older, so it has the added benefit of having plenty of free teaching resources.
The Ypsilanti Library offers a range of teaching resources for this book for free, including an awesome 8-page teaching guide, read-alouds for each short story, and six additional resources, from self-portraits to mapping your neighborhood and exploring the context and connotation (different meanings) of the recurring phrase, "a school bus falling from the sky."
Learning to Give offers several excellent lesson plan elements for this book, such as the before, during and after reading ask, show and connect questions, as well as five (5) activities.
There are a plethora of commercial novel studies and comprehension questions offered for sale for this book, as well. Teachers Pay Teachers offers quite a few.
